


On a Space Date

by fizzyblogic (phizzle)



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-19
Updated: 2011-01-19
Packaged: 2017-10-14 21:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/153712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/fizzyblogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River and Amy go on a space date. (Set between Cold Blood and The Pandorica Opens.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	On a Space Date

**Author's Note:**

> For tigertale7 <3

River is in a café, two years after she first meets Amy Pond, enjoying her freedom and the most beautiful coffee in this galaxy while making notes for an article on ancient Magarathea. She looks up between paragraphs, pen cap held in her teeth, and spits it out to shout, “Doctor! Amy! Over here!”

“River!” Amy bounces over excitedly. “What are you doing here?”

“Research,” she says, capping the pen. “What about you? Anything exciting going on?” She shoots the Doctor a grin.

He shakes his head. “Just showing Amy the sights.”

“Yeah, he’s been taking me to all sorts of places,” Amy beams. She is absolutely gorgeous when she smiles like that, River notices. “We went to this ice planet, right, and there’s all these plants and things just frozen in there, and there’s _tunnels_ , and a whole city you can only get to by sliding down this _slalom_ thing, it was amazing.”

“Sounds like fun. It‘s lovely to see you when we‘re not in imminent danger, so,” River leans forward, keeping her eyes fixed on Amy’s and lowering her voice, “can I buy you a drink?”

Amy stares at her for a few seconds and then says, “Yeah, why not.”

“Amy, why don’t you sit down, I’ll help River with the,” the Doctor gestures. “Yeah.” He follows River to the counter. The second they’re out of earshot, he hisses, “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? I’m just buying a friend a drink.” She looks at him out of the corner of her eye, not trying very hard with the fake innocence. The look on his face is priceless.

“Yes, well, make sure that’s all it is.” He carries two coffees back to their table, grumbling under his breath, and she picks up the other coffee and a large plate of kafbak cakes.

River asks what she knows are the right questions to get Amy to talk about their travels. After five minutes of shooting suspicious and probably warning glances River’s way, the Doctor starts getting into the stories and adding to them. They interrupt each other, laughing over the in-jokes. River remembers a few of them from when the Doctor is older, and thinks, _Oh, Amy’s the friend of his who escaped with him in the rescue pod!_ She makes a mental note to write it down in the book.

When the kafbak cakes are eaten and the coffees drunk, Amy stretches and River enjoys the view. “We’d better let you get on with your research,” the Doctor says, picking up the book to look at it. “Wonders of the Ancient Universe? What are you — _Magarathea_?” He sounds so appalled that River can’t help laughing.

“Archaeologist, remember?” She takes the book out of his hands. He’s still spluttering.

“You should come with us,” Amy says. “You know, we could …” She trails off, turns to the Doctor. “What do people do on space dates?”

“ _Dates_? No, no, Amy, now. River doesn’t have time, I’m sure she has things to do,” he says, very very pointedly.

River smiles winningly at Amy and says, “I’d love to. How about I take you to Paris in 2043, there’s a wonderful market there. We could see a living film.”

Amy’s eyebrows shoot up. “A living film?”

The Doctor’s eyebrows have also shot up. “ _You_ take her there?”

“Living film is what comes after 3D,” River says. She turns to the Doctor. “Yes, I will take her. You can come too, if you like, there’s the unveiling of the best science museum Earth ever had.” She does her best to make it sound enticing, and sees him waver.

He recovers. “No. Absolutely not. Amy and I really must be on our way.” He stands, holding a hand out. “Come along, Pond.”

“Doctor.” Amy’s voice is sharp. “I haven’t had a date in I don’t even _know_ how long, and I really like River. So you can shut up and go play with science-y things.” She waves her hands when she speaks. River is looking forward to kissing her so much.

“Venice was a good date,” the Doctor mutters quietly, as Amy pushes him along. River shoves her book and note-taker into her bag and follows. “Apart from nearly dying. And the fish vampires.”

“That wasn’t a date,” Amy protests. “That was you taking me to Venice for some reason. Why was that?”

The Doctor doesn’t answer for a minute. Then he says, “Thought you’d like it.” River would wonder if the Doctor wants Amy all to himself if she didn’t know him so well.

“This one,” Amy turns to River as they approach the TARDIS, “full of mixed signals. I try to kiss him, he pushes me away, suddenly he takes me to _Venice_ for no reason.”

River catches the look on the Doctor’s face as he unlocks the door. Something’s up, but it’s not really any of her business. There are things she doesn’t prod, with him, and one of them is that look.

“He’s like that,” she says. “One minute he’s being like your grandfather, the next he’s being oddly romantic. I’m fairly sure by now that he doesn’t realise.” She winks at Amy. The Doctor ignores them; he’s at the controls, setting them for the 21st century.

River thinks about going over to fly, but really she’d rather stay next to Amy, who is standing so close their arms are brushing. “Space Gandalf,” she laughs. “He really is just clueless, isn’t he?”

“Totally and completely.” River smiles at her, and leans over to kiss her lightly. Amy leans into it.

“Well,” she says, once River leans away again, “I’d better get changed if we’re going somewhere fancy.” She skips out of the control room, losing her footing slightly as the TARDIS lurches through the vortex. River strides over to the console and hits the stabilising button.

“Boring,” the Doctor snaps at her, and hits it again.

“Amy’s getting changed,” River says, hitting the button and keeping her hand over it. “Why are you so upset about this? She doesn’t have a boyfriend, does she? Girlfriend?”

The Doctor looks like he’s going to cry for a minute. When he speaks, his voice is slightly thick. “No,” he says. “No, there’s no one now.”

River thinks about prodding that, but this is one of those looks that she hates seeing on his face. It would only get worse if she asked, and he clearly doesn’t want her to. (He never wants her to.) He flips a few more switches that don’t really do anything, visibly collecting himself.

Amy emerges a few minutes later, just after they land. (The Doctor insists on keeping the brakes on. River lets him.) She looks absolutely stunning, and River tells her so.

Amy kisses her, a swift kiss somewhere between casual and insistent. River thinks how much fun sex with her would be, and takes her hand. “Let’s go and see what films are showing,” she says, and they step out onto the Parisian street.


End file.
